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T Rex met his match in the ancient ancestor of the great white shark, an analysis of their bites shows.

A team of Australian and US researchers reach that conclusion in the latest edition of the Journal of Zoology published today.

Using computer modelling techniques the team calculate the gigantic Carcharodon megalodon, which may have grown to 16 metres and weighed 100 tonnes, could generate between 10.8 to 18.2 tonnes of bite force.

A comparison of Tyrannosaurus rex with megalodon suggests the great lizard was no match for the giant shark, also known as Big Tooth.

They generated three-dimensional models of the skull of a 2.4-metre male great white shark on the basis of multiple x-ray images generated by a computerised tomography (CT) scanner.

Using imaging and analysis software and a technique known as "finite element analysis", the team reconstructed the great white's skull, jaws and muscles, remodelling them as hundreds of thousands of tiny discrete, but connected parts.

Crash tested

They then digitally "crash tested" this computer model to simulate different scenarios and reveal the bite of the predator, as well as the complex distributions of stresses and strains that these forces impose on the shark's jaws.

"Nature has endowed this carnivore with more than enough bite force to kill and eat large and potentially dangerous prey," Wroe, an expert on carnivore evolution, says.

"Pound for pound the great whites' bite is not particularly impressive, but the sheer size of the animal means that in absolute terms it tops the scales."

However, he says the shark's extremely sharp serrated teeth require relatively little force to drive them through thick skin, fat and muscle.

The scientists also found that although shark's jaws are comprised of elastic cartilage (as opposed to the bony jaws of most other fish), this did not greatly reduce the power of its bite.

Wroe and his colleagues used the same methodology to estimate the bite force of megalodon.